The company is one of several that claim the Craighead County Fair Association owes for work done at the fairgrounds, which opened Sept. 17.

Lovett said Baker Brothers is owed $304,343.10 for asphalt work, and the foreclosure documents are seeking that amount in addition to interest, costs and attorney’s fees.

Fair Association President Eddie Burris said in a statement to the newspaper that cost overruns pushed the project’s budget beyond available money.

“The construction project undertaken by the Craighead County Fair Association was an extremely large and complex endeavor undertaken within a very compact time-line of completion,” Burris said in the statement. Construction at the fairgrounds began about a year and a half ago.

“The fair is currently in the process of attempting to resolve these cash flow issues by arranging adequate financing to provide funding until additional funds can be generated by the future sales of the Stadium (Boulevard) acreage owned by the fair,” he wrote, and said that the association believes everyone will be paid.

In a separate complaint, Woods Masonry and Repair of Bono filed a debt collection suit against the fair association for $16,354.40, the unpaid balance of a $126,000 contract to complete masonry work at cattle and swine barns at the new fairgrounds. That lawsuit also seeks attorney’s fees and interest.

Other liens have been filed on the property for unpaid debts totaling more than $1.2 million by Bailey Contractors, Lakeside Contractors, RGB Mechanical Contractors and Adams and Cooper Plumbing.

The new fairgrounds replaced the former Craighead County Fairgrounds in east Jonesboro, a now-burgeoning retail and restaurant district.